What Are You Bringing To The Table?

By Matt Kahn

Matt has been a friend of The Knights Hall in New Hampshire since 2012, participating in Hall functions and lending his artistic talent when needed. Matt started training for armored combat and joined the Armored Combat League in 2015. Since then, he has fought in several Chapter Matches, Knight Fights and became a crowd favorite at The New World Cup II. He is currently on The Dark Knights Team of Boston and is trying out for The US Knights National team that will be going to the 2016 IMCF World Championships, May 26 - 29, in Montemor-O-Velho, Portugal.

Eight months ago, (my first Chapter Match), I was on loan to The Quebec Black Wolves to help fill their roster. Our opponents; The Boston Dark Knights. I spent the majority of that chapter match on my back as a ‘not so pretty’ battlefield decoration. My stamina was poor, I was easy to knockdown, and I had no weapons depth or power. In general, I was a huge goddamn liability. Afterward, people came to congratulate me and tell me for my first time out, I did great. They gave me lots of encouragement...but I knew better. They were telling me these things, because they didn't want me to give up on the sport. I understood, but I was feeling pretty bad about myself and my rather poor showing. I knew that, going forward, I had to take a hard look at where I was and where I needed to be.

What Did I Have To Offer?In order to move forward, I needed a place to start. Any good personal trainer will start off their clients by creating a baseline. They look at your natural attributes: How tall are you? How much do you weigh? How strong are you? Do you have an athletic background? How good is your work ethic? Then, they begin to assess what you can do and what you can't. This is what I needed to do. To understand what I had to offer, I first had to analyzed every last bit of relevant information I could and make a starting platform on which to build.

Creating A Plan: Let's say you are very similar to myself; you are short, relatively out of shape, low stamina, lacking in physical strength, and your body shape is ill-suited to physical combat with short legs and short arms. BUT you have a high passion and zeal for what you are doing and you have an enormous work ethic. That’s what I had! I freaking love this sport! And I know how to work hard!

Zeal, passion and a great work ethic are huge! You can have all the potential in the world, but if you don’t have a love for the sport, a desire to make it happen and a willingness to work for it, you can still fail. As Cat Brooks and Jaye Brooks Sr, (two very big luminaries in this sport), can attest, lots of people have tried armored combat that were very physically gifted in all the right ways. And yet, they failed and faded away. Either they didn’t have the passion for what they were doing or they just weren’t willing to do what was necessary to succeed.

This self critique was my first step in creating a plan. I would use my strong work ethic, desire and sheer force of ‘will’ to train. Do better. Get better. Essentially, I was willing to throw down whatever was necessary to achieve my goals. I started hitting knight-fit hard, 3 to 5 days a week. Once my body was up to that task I started adding additional supplementary workouts to bolster whatever knight-fit alone couldn’t do. My diet also needed adjustment to lose what remained of my excess weight and to start really growing in muscle size and strength.

It was a process with a plan. And it was working! In December, 2014, I won my first singles match, simply by outlasting my opponent.

Understand Your Roll On The TeamBefore you can prove you belong, you must first understand what the team needs from you.Ask your teammates and especially your team captain/local leadership what you can do to make yourself the most effective team player you can be. Understanding your roll on your team will help you find your focus.

In November, 2015, I was drafted onto The Boston Dark Knights. After discussions with my Captain, Lane Atteridge, I knew I was not going to be a frontline man dealing out loads of punishment. Captain Atteridge told me to train to be a rock. Make myself extremely hard to knock down and just stay on my feet by whatever it takes. This might not sound like the most glorious option, but honestly, in a sport that determines its wins by who is still standing, it can make all the difference in the world.

Some of my teammates like Cat Brooks or Al Caron are meant to be bruisers. They look the part with their size and stature and are monsters on the field. When the opposing team sees me on the field they go right to me like moths to a flame. Why? Because, I'm the "small guy" and they think I'll be easy to roll. Too bad for them. I am a rock. I will stay on my feet and I will not fall! The beauty of this is that my opponents are going to exert quite a bit of energy before they figure this out and that leaves the punishers on the team free to do what they do best… knock heads.

December, 2015, The Dark Knights squared off against The Black Wolves. This time I was able to fight for my own team. My focus was on Lane’s words, “Be a rock!” Not only did my training keep me going, I outlasted many on the opposing team, kept my feet and was never knocked down!

Getting a roll like “be a rock”, is not glamorous, but remember, your first priority should ALWAYS be, how can I best support and be a valuable asset to my team. If your focus is only on yourself and attracting attention to you, it will show and your teammates will no longer want to work with you. But if your priority is being an asset to the whole team, everyone will benefit.

In January, 2016, The Boston Dark Knights faced off against The Nashua Knightmares. We all train together at The Knights Hall and know each other very well. Both teams are formidable and we all knew we were in for a tough fight. Again, I focused on my job. “Be a rock!” I not only managed to stay on my feet and be the rock my team needed me to be, but I was even able to get a few takedowns and twice ended up being the last man standing! This meant I was partially responsible for two of the 5 points my team ended up earning!

We lost the January Chapter Match against The Knightmares, but I finally felt like a member of the team. I felt like I could actually be someone my battle-brothers relied on and not a liability.… And that meant the world to me!

Proving You Belong On Your TeamSelf-assess. Find your base. Build on it.Learn what roll you can do that will best help your team and train for it.Build on your strengths and overcome your weaknesses.

The goal is to build the team and be part of everyone's success.Your effort and dedication will show and you will do great things in the sport of armored combat...

Lane has been involved in the ACL since 2014. He traveled with The USA Knights to Poland in 2015, competing in the IMCF World Championships and is the current Captain of the Boston Dark Knights. He trains at The Knights Hall in Nashua, New Hampshire.

“Well, you wouldn't want to attack a man with his back turned, that's not honorable.” I overheard a fan saying after our latest Chapter Match. His sentiment is completely understandable from an outsider's perspective, but misses the mark a bit. The brutality of this sport sometimes makes spectators think we adhere to a set of vague guidelines on top of the rules of the sport. Maybe some do, but I have a good reason for following the letter of the law when it comes to rules, no more and no less. It's a different sort of honor, one that is not immediately apparent to an outsider. It can be broken into two pieces, “Honor your Teammates” and “Honor your Opponent.”

Honor your TeammatesThis sport is no joke. Broken bones and concussions abound, armor failures lead to bloody scars and I've seen more than one man spit out his own teeth. I've only been fighting for a year and a half. This level of violence leads to injury, and the old saying goes “It's not a question of if, but a question of when.” Some of these injuries can be career-enders. You get a stray shot to the knee with a polearm and suddenly you're walking with a limp for the rest of your life, and get to watch your buddies fight from a comfy seat on the sidelines. We're warriors, it's in our blood, and the idea of getting retired by a blow is a very real and very terrifying thought. While good armor and training can mitigate this risk, it can never go away. Damaging another human is the core tenant of our sport. So how do we come to terms with this? We fight hard, and we fight fast, and we protect the people standing next to us. “Honoring your Teammate” means doing anything and everything to stop another fighter from hurting them. If you hesitate, if you pull punches, if you stop and worry about hurting the man on the other side of the list field, that moment could cost your teammate. If you pull your punches on an attack from behind, that might not be enough to stop your enemy from swinging his weapon into your teammates hip. That weapon swing might be the swing that misses armor and lands straight on flesh and bone, destroying both. That might put your teammate out for days, weeks, years, or retire them forever. In the context of our sport, it would be your fault for hesitating, because your opponent is fighting just as hard for his own teammate. Ending the fight quickly will be your best insurance against a friend and teammate getting injured, and sometimes the only way to end a fight quickly is by brutality. When you rely on your team, and your team relies on you, hesitation to hurt people is not an option.

Honor your OpponentSteel Fighting takes a certain kind of person, I think we all know that. New fighters are entering the sport constantly these days, and I am seeing new faces at every event. I don't know these men, and they don't know me. So I fight them as hard as I can, and I expect no less from them. A sign of respect is treating every opponent like a dangerous adversary, even if it's their first day in armor. Part of that is respect for anyone willing to get in kit and get out on the field. It takes guts, and I admire anyone who is willing to do it. I'm going to treat them with the same level of reverence and respect as a storied warrior who has been fighting for years, because I respect the act of getting out there and fighting. Another aspect of honoring your opponent speaks to the danger inherent in this sport. Someone could have never held a falchion in their life, but it comes naturally to them, and they start swinging it with bone-breaking power. You have no idea what you're coming up against, and so I treat all comers with respect, because underestimating them could land myself or a teammate in the hospital.When I had my second Knight Fight, I went up against the legendary Dave “The Mangler” Olsen, and he took me to task. In the last round of the fight, I was exhausted and my arms were lead, and I literally couldn't defend myself from his blows. But I wasn't kneeling, or saying yield, but I was stubbornly staying on my feet the best I could. After four or five clean, unimpeded punches and chops to my head from The Mangler, I saw him hesitate for just a heartbeat. It was a stutter in his swings, a momentary calculation. He knew he could just step back and wait, seeing if I would yield, or the ref would call a TKO. But he did me the great honor of hitting me as hard and as fast as he could until the bell sounded. I truly take that as an honor, and I know it sounds insane, but taking pity on my exhausted body and just stepping back would have been devastating to me. He had won the round, and with that won the match, but he still treated me like a legitimate threat until the end. It was an honor.

Fighting Your Hardest for Yourself, Your Team, Your OpponentsA lot of people like to talk a lot of things about honor, and off the field “honor” can be a lot of things, too many and too varied to talk about here. But on the field, this is what I consider to be the most honorable actions. It seems strange, my honor code seems to demand hitting opponents as hard as I can in weakly armored areas, or grabbing them and turning them to a friend who will hopefully do the same. It's counterintuitive until you realize what it would mean if you didn't do these things. To me, these guidelines are unwavering rules, etched in stone, letting me know that I gave my all on the field.

So, You want to have a KnightFight®

By Evan Ringo

So, you want to have a KnightFight®, do you? Good. They’re fun. More than that they are, in my opinion, the purest form of this competition. Want to find out what you’re made of? Want see how good you really are? This is the place. No one to carry your slack and no one else’s slack for you to carry. Duels are fun, but they don’t have the violence. Melee’s are great, but they lack that mano y mano aspect. No, this is it… The purest, rawest, and in my opinion, most enjoyable aspect of our infant sport.

In case you weren’t sold before I hope you are now, but regardless you’re probably asking yourself some questions. What’s the fight really like? How’s my training line up to this competition? What do I need to pull this off? And how can I get myself a fight? If those aren’t the questions you’re asking….I guess you’re out of luck. Cause that’s what I’m gonna answer. Or I guess you could comment below or reach out to me personally and I’ll try to help, but it won’t be in this article. This one is gonna answer the pre picked question like it was a presidential debate. Yeah, Politics! Where Do I Start? How Do I Know When I’m Ready?Let’s deal with what you need to pull this off. First and foremost, Information. You need an accurate assessment of where you are as a fighter. You need to know the rules. You need to know how your gear works, what weapons you have access to, what weapons your proposed opponent has access to, and how they fight with it. Let’s break that down a bit more.

The Rules...Well, we’re still working on them. Read the singles rules for duels. That’s basically the same.

Remove anything that prohibits kicks or punches, (though the knee and groin as targets are still off limit), see rules in, (ACL Rules).

5 rounds, not 3.

It’s subjectively scored, based on fight dominance and weapon dominance.

Clinches will be broken up after 3 seconds always, not 3 seconds of inactivity.

No striking a downed opponent and

no fighting once you’ve fallen (3 points of contact).

In terms of judging, weapons strikes are worth twice non weapon strikes or takedowns where both fighters fall.

Take downs where one fighter keeps their feet are worth twice weapon strikes.

Disarms are not officially recognized in such a manner, but I’d say they are weighted about the same a takedown where you keep your feet.

Each round is scored by 3 judges,

A)10 to the winner, B)9 to the loser unless the winner was truly dominant in which case the loser may get 8 or even 7. C)Penalties will remove a point from the total D)Knocking an opponent out or causing them to submit will also grant victory. E)Fighters are given 1 minute of total time to fix any armor problems. If they can not fix it before that time elapses they forfeit the match. F)The total after all rounds are added up to determine the winner.

Assessment: Getting an accurate assessment of yourself as a fighter is not easy. You need to give yourself a hard look in the mirror. Don’t look away from your faults, but you also can’t focus so much on them that you lose sight of your prowess.

First off, are you in shape? No really, I mean “300”, “Adonis”, or even “Conan”, shape. You don’t want to carry extra fat into this fight, especially if it pushes you into a higher weight class.

Can you do a full 5 minute Schifino work out? How bout 10 minutes? KnightFights® are a grueling endurance event and it’s absolutely essential you get your body in place, before anything else. Think about what your weight would be at 12-15% body fat. What weight class does that put you in? Try to aim for that. If you’re on the border you can bulk or cut as you feel works better for you.

What weapons are you skilled in? How are you kicks and punches? What’s your grapple game like? Figure out what you’re strongest asset is and build your fight game around it. Figure out what your biggest “hole” is and spend the next few weeks and months trying to close it. Ask others for their assessment of you. Take the time to watch videos of yourself, especially ones where you lose. Figure out what you did wrong. We’re all new at this game and right now we all have huge gaps. You’re going to get the most out of your training time by self assessing and closing your biggest holes.

Weapons combination that matches your opponents and also meets the rules, posted above. You want to know how your weapon moves, where your armor gaps or binds and how your want your points to sit, exactly. You don’t have time to be fussing with that the day of the fight so spend some time getting to know your armor before hand.

A mouth guard, no exceptions!

A squire and my personal recommendation is that they know how to fight so they can act as a corner man. You only get one.

Some form of cold compress that can go on your neck or under your arms

A water bottle that you can drink out of - in your helmet. You don’t ever want to take the helmet off. Open your visor but don’t take your helmet off.

Ok, Now you know what you need, time to look at your training and how it holds up to your competition .Well, I don’t know what your local competition is doing, but the most successful fighters out of “The Knights Hall” do 3 team sessions a week as well as 2-4 additional training sessions. Team sessions consist of a warm up, a Knightfit®, and some combination of footwork, pell work, bag work, agility drills, grappling drills, melee teamwork drills, or sparring. (It’s a minimum 6 hours a week as a team.) Brandon Ross, (Captain of the Knightmares), supplements this with a few days of heavy weight training. I do 2-3 additional days of weapon technique classes and sparring, and try to get at least 2 additional days of 30 minutes at the pell or heavy bag and at least one day running. To break that down, if you want to compete physically you need to be training a minimum 5 days a week, (which should really be 6 or 7 depending on what you need for rest days). Training:Assuming you’re going to take on a 5 to 7 day regime, what should you do for your training? Well first you need to “cardio-up” and in particular, get your, “recovery” and ability to “maintain”, at max output. You need to be doing some form of interval training at least twice a week. I’d suggest getting a heart rate monitor and making sure you are getting your HR into 90% or more of your max. Next, you need to have your, “striking” up, so make sure you’re doing at least one day of pell and bag work. The rest should address your weaknesses. If you can’t do a Schifino®, you aren’t ready in cardio and just need to keep upping that. If you can, but find that you get thrown a lot in sparring, you need balance. Do some lunges, boardwalks, (place a 2by4 on its side and walk the length), pistols, and single leg deadlifts. Practice footwork every day. If you find you’re punching is good, but you can’t swing a 6 shot sword combo, get on that pell, everyday. Find your weakness and train it. And, no matter what, Spar as much as possible. I can’t stress this enough! Nothing helps train fighting like fighting. Feel free to message me if you want specific advice. I’m not an expert by any means, but I have a clue.

Getting a fight:So, you have an idea what you need and plan to train, but now how do you get a fight? Well first you need to find an event. Unless you can make The Knights Hall, KnightFight® , night or you plan on putting on an event yourself, you’re gonna need to get in contact with a regional commander or chapter head and try to arrange for a spot at one of their events. If you want to arrange your own KnightFight®, “only”, event that’s a whole different thing and Cat or Jaye Brooks would be far better than me to talk to that. When you contact the event runner tell them you’d like to fight at their event either before or after the melee’s, or in between rounds to fill an intermission break. If you get their ok, that’s good, but you still need to do some work. If you’re really lucky the event organizer will have everything handled for you, but don’t assume anything.

Find an opponent in your weight class.Weight Classes:

(Featherweight - 140 and under),

(Ultra Lightweight141-160),

(Lightweight 161-180),

(Middleweight 181-220),

(Heavyweight 221-260),

(Titan Class 261+)

Pre Planned Arrangements For KnightFight® Match:

Judges, (You’ll need to find 3 judges who understand boxing scoring as well as weapon fighting).

A referee. (You can probably get one of the refs at the event already to double duty, but you’ll want to make sure they know all the details and have contacted Jaye T Brooks Sr. so they can be clear on all interpretations.)

You’ll need a way of verifying weigh within the week before the fight.

You’ll want to have a DJ to play entrance music for you and your opponent,

an MC to introduce you and explain the fight to the crowd,

a videographer to film it. And If you’re really together,

Get some commentators for a “Live Stream”.

As you can see, there’s a lot that goes into these fights and unfortunately we as fighters have to play multiple roles; promoter, trainer, and fighter. That’s what it takes to build this new aspect up and build it up we will. If you want to get in early, be on crest of the wave as it builds, now is the time to get in. So go get to work and I’ll see you in the List.

Who is Damion DiGrazia?

By Jana Brooks

If you were to ask, "Who is Damion DiGrazia? ..."Well... That is a very complicated question.

And, if in response to that question, someone were to tell you he was;a Mason,a Marathon RunnerA Church ElderA Krav Maga studentA Sunday School TeacherA Consultant on Wall StreetAn American Red Cross Disaster ResponderA County CommitteemanAchilles International Guide for the disabledor secretly a younger version of Saint Nick for “Operation Santa Claus”They would not be wrong. Because Mr. DiGrazia is all those things and more!

You would think, with a dance card this full, Damion wouldn’t have a lot of time for much else. Especially if it were something as demanding as armored combat fighting! But in the spring 0f 2014, Damion trained hard and made the US team, traveling to Europe for the Armored Combat League’s IMCF World Championship, held at the Belmonte Castle, Belmonte, Spain.

“It was such an honor to fight there and be part of that.” Said Damion in an interview last winter. “I was very proud to represent my country.”

But Damion did more than just represent... He made an impression ! During the 2014 Championship, the Spaniards from, “Team Espana”, held a special ceremony where they recognized Damion for his speed and agility upon the field. They presented him with an arrow as a token and gave him the name, “El Flecha”, (The Arrow).

Q: “So Damion, what was that like, being recognised by a whole other country?”A: “At first I said, no. It was too much. It took three tries for them to get me to accept it. It was such an honor. I have the arrow framed and hanging on my wall at home.”

But Damion’s story does not end there. In the Spring of 2015, he traveled again with the Armored Combat League, (this time to the Malbork Castle in Poland for the 2015 IMCF World Championship), and this time brought home the Silver Metal as part of the 16 vs 16 US Team.

After Poland, Damion had a new mission. He and a few of his teammates wanted to find a location big enough to continue training for the Armored Combat League. (Not an easy thing to do in New York City.) ...But if anything, Damion is a guy that understands determination!

Working with Jaye T Brooks Sr, Andre Sinou and Raab Rashi, (Owner at Sword Class, NYC), Damion found a home for a second Knights Hall, and named it,”The Knights Hall New York” at Sword Class NYC!

The new school had its first official practice on June 20, 2015, where Damion was awarded a special “The Knights Hall” Trainer Certification for Armored Combat Melee. The school was a success and on September 20, 2015, it moved to an even bigger location, on 1944 Madison Ave. New York, NY 10035.

Today, you can go to The Knights Hall, New York and train just as you do at The Knights Hall in New Hampshire. What a fantastic ride, Mr DiGrazia ! We can’t wait to see what you do in 2016!

Finding And Earning Your Place In The Armored Combat LeagueBy Matt Kahn

If you have taken part in any team sports in your life, you know that part and parcel of being successful in that sport is earning your place among the members of your team. Between the training and sweating, you becoming a friend, a confidante, and a brother or sister-in-arms.

The sport of armored combat and the organization of the Armored Combat League is no different. If anything, it’s even more so in this case, because you are quite literally fighting alongside your teammates on the battlefield...bleeding with them, protecting them, watching their backs and relying on them to protect and watch yours.

Having taken part in other teams, I have never seen a tighter bond...nor have I ever seen a sport where it’s so hard to truly earn your place among your teammates as I have found in the ACL. But the rewards of becoming one of them is worth it.

Fighting in armor is not easy, especially if you have led a mostly sedentary lifestyle, beforehand. You are engaging in rigorous physical activity that is heavy in cardiovascular work with 65 to 80 pounds of steel encasing your entire body. Your helmet is one of the heaviest things you will ever put on your head. It will prevent you from drawing a normal breath, rendering you quickly “gassed” and feeling like you are trapped in a steel coffin. All this, while big mean men and women are beating the crap out of you with steel weapons...sound scary? It is and I was!

I’m a very small guy. As I sit here typing these words, I am currently the smallest guy on the Boston Dark Knights team, in both in terms of height and weight. Recently, I looked around at the membership of steel-fighting in this country and lo and behold, I am one of the smallest fighters in the entire sport. But no matter how small, you have to be able to hold your own on the field, regardless of the size of your opponent. And for someone like me, that was a very difficult thing to do.

I was never a physically intimidating person, (even when I was training regularly in martial arts), but I knew that the first thing I would need to do in order to be a positive contributing member of my team, would be to get over the “intimidation hump”. The only way to do this was to reach deep inside and get ahold of some serious stones. This is a work in progress, and at times, I’m not 100% positive I’m there yet... but this is what it takes when I have an opponent, with more experience or literally twice my size standing in front of me, so I mentally push and continually train myself to get by this road block.

The next step was the physical training. This was not easy for a guy use to sleeping in, sitting on the couch and eating ice cream… But let me tell you… If you want to earn your place among warriors, you need to train like a warrior. At the Knight's Hall we have a saying; “Deeds Not Words”. Coming into the Hall I talked up a big game. Some of guys humored me by occasionally listening to me ramble on, but I knew they did not take me seriously. I hadn’t done anything to take me seriously about. People like to talk a lot, especially when they want to start something as awesome as armored combat. Having been a part of this for over six months now, I have seen other people come around and talk a good game. They've said they want to train and fight, but then when it came time for them to put up or shut up, they were nowhere to be found.

This does not make you part of the team. If you want to earn your place, you need to train like an absolute beast! You need to up your best physical game and push your limits, until it hurts. I went from no training at all, to training almost every day. Whether it's Knight-Fit, weight lifting, long distance running, or something else, you have to push yourself beyond your limits… and then you have to keep at it and look for the gains.

I train 5 to 7 days a week with the singular goal in mind, to become more effective to my team on the field. I needed to do personal training sessions, attend frequent classes, and go to lots of events, before I even started to gain any kind of real respect from the Knights Hall athletes that surrounded me… And that was only the beginning. It’s going to get harder now, as I prepare myself for the National Tournament in March and work towards earning a spot on the USA Knights National Team for the IMCF World Championship in Portugal at the end of May, 2016.

The last step, (which was really the first step), was creating a work/life balance between the training, the family and the day job. Right from the beginning of my journey were the life adjustments necessary to accommodate the commitment of being on the team. If you want to be successful at anything, you have to make it a priority in your life and still attend your loved ones and put food on the table… This is no truer than in the sport of armored combat. This is not a sport for dilettantes...this is a sport for committed men and women only.

I had to adjust my work schedule so that I could attend more classes at the Knight's Hall. I had to sacrifice nights that I could have spent at home with my brand new baby girl and my wife. I had to sacrifice spending time that used to be dedicated to playing video games with friends, going to the movies and dinners with family...

I knew that if I was going to have a shot of earning my place among the Nation’s best, go overseas and to be a welcomed member of my local chapter and National Team, I was going to have to make some hard choices. My willingness to commit to these changes was what my teammates wanted to know from me and what your team will want to know from you… Are you willing to make the hard choice to put the sport of armored combat as a high priority in your life as they do? Are you going to be there when they call you to arms? Can you be depended upon to not only show up, but perform well and conduct yourself with honor both on and off the field?

In the end, I am further along than when I started in this sport. I also have a long way to go. There are days when I feel part of the team.....but there are days when I still feel like an outsider… and in no way do I actually feel like I'm a valued team member, yet.

Don't get me wrong, I'm still going to strive to earn that, but it feels like some days that no matter how hard I try it’s just beyond my grasp. Becoming part of the team can be slow going. But work hard. Train hard. And be ready to step up when the time comes. “Deeds Not Words”, my friend. That’s what makes you part of the team.

Rookie to Rookie: Weapon ChoiceBy Lane Atteridge

A few fights into my rookie year, I started to notice a shift in how I fought. For a long time, I might as well have had a pool cue in my hand, for all the good it did me. But as I got better at field position, at keeping my feet, and at moving around a bit in armor, I started to question what weapon I held in my hand. I found myself in positions where I could be doing some damage to my opponent, but found I lacked the offensive output to do very much.That problem of mine was two-fold. First off, I wasn't very good at throwing a weapon shot. A year later, and I'm still not great at it, but I'm getting there. So, my damage output was lacking, because of my swings, and how unskilled they were. Compounding that issue was my hatchet and buckler. Early on, a loaner weapon that was available to me was a one-handed axe with a tomahawk type head, and it was fairly small and light. In my other hand, I held the free buckler I was lucky enough to get packaged in with my armor when I bought my kit. I was clinching a lot in the old days, relying on my rusty Muay Thai skills to survive. I rarely had a chance to use my weapon and shield, beyond the occasional buckler punch to the face. When I found myself surviving the scrums more and more, I also found myself with an exposed opponent's back. I needed to try something new.First step was turning my buckler into a more offensive weapon. Cat Brooks developed what we affectionately call the “Punch Buckler,” (a strapped version of the classic buckler). There's advantages and disadvantages here, but personally I love it. A small, metal shield turned on it's edge is almost like punching with the striking edge of an axe. It can slip through defenses like a jab, and can find open spots like a weapon strike. It's small enough that it doesn't get tangled up in a grapple. And, it's still a shield; I've got creases on it to show where I've caught a two-handed strike.Next was trying to figure out my main-hand weapon. Early on, I was barely using my weapon at all. So it seemed a no-brainer to stick a heavier axe in my hand, so that when I did swing it, I did it with some meaning behind it. It worked just OK. The “dread axe” head that is so popular as a two-handed axe head these days was my one-handed axe, and that was a mistake. It was too heavy, I couldn't get any snap to it. The plus side of the weapon was that when I got ignorant and desperate, I could slide my hand up and punch with it. That happened more than I'd like to admit.I've since changed to a falchion. It's the same weight as my axe, but more evenly distributed throughout the weapon. I've been fighting with it for quite a while, and I still feel like I'm learning. But it's quicker, has a bit more reach, and is easier to toss out a quick slash. Then, when I want to switch to a more offensive output role (like a teammate is tangled with an opponent, and I have their exposed side), the falchion has enough weight so I'm a threat.That's a step forward, but I'm by no means done experimenting with weaponry. I talked mostly about one-handed weapons here, and that's because my two-hander skills are far behind my other skills. I've played with them in melee and found myself holding it in one hand, and punching with the other. Brandon Ross, my brother and captain of the Knightmares, took to a two-handed weapon like a natural. He quickly found out his college baseball skills were translating into power generation, making his two-handed hits brutally effective.Don't ever stop experimenting with weapons. Some fighters fall into the trap of “I'm worried if I switch I'll be at ground zero again,” and that is partly true. But the benefits of finding a weapon that fits your style outweigh the risks. Switch weapons with your training partner. Goof around on the pell with something you borrow for the day. Explore all options, because you might find the perfect thing out there for you. And worse case scenario, you get a little experience with a variety of weapons, which is never a bad thing.

2013 FlashBack

This week, I thought it might be fun to take a look back. Here is an article written about The Knights Hall and published when we were pretty new. Things have changed a lot, here at The Hall... but one thing stays the same, controlled violence.Enjoy;​Jana Brooks

Sunday, November 24, 2013

Why are grown men in full armor hitting each other in a Nashua mill?For fun, of course!

By DAVID BROOKSStaff Writer (Nashua Telegraph)

Jaye Brooks has been friends with Mike Luich for years, which is why a recently found Luich slamming Brooks upside the head with 5 pounds of steel.

The blow could have felled a cow, but Brooks’ response was calm: “That’s a point for you.”

The difference is that cows don’t wear armor, whereas Brooks and Luich were covered in steel, leather and cloth from head to ankle. Had this been a serious competition instead of the weekly workout at the Knights Hall on Lake Street, their feet would have been covered, too.

The duo and their friend Craig Nadler – three middle-aged Nashua residents who work in the tech industry – were indulging their extreme hobby of armored combat, a cross between mixed martial arts and medieval re-enactment that has a small but dedicated international following.

Brooks led the 2012 American team that went to Poland for the international Battle of Nations, the first time the U.S. has participated. They won the Best Debut Team award in the contest, which drew some 500 people, and Brooks came in 10th in individual combat.

The idea is to dress like a knight in the Middle Ages (12th to 15th centuries) and then fight like one, using swords, axes, maces, poles and other weaponry made authentic to the edge of lethality – no sharp edges, and no stabbing allowed. Judging from an observed workout in Knights Hall on the fourth floor of a renovated mill building, the battles are short, brutal, metal-on-metal loud, and exhausting.

“You’re wearing 50-something pounds of armor, but moving like boxing,” said Brooks, dripping sweat.“You have to be in shape,” said Luich, who was equally sweaty. “He’s in shape, I’m not.”The armor makes quite a difference, too. The fourth Nashuan in the room, David Jordan, audience manager at The Telegraph, wore a suit of armor that looked terrific to the layman’s eye but was made of steel too thin to withstand metal weaponry.

Jordan uses it for fighting with “swords” made of rattan, as part of the Society for Creative Anachronism, a less lethal version of re-enacting medieval warfare.

He would like to move up into the Armored Combat League, and during a reporter’s visit he tried a short stint against Luich with metal weapons. Because blows to the head aren’t allowed with rattan weapons, he was inexperienced at high defense, keeping his shield too low to fend off Luich’s careful thrusts that banged off Brooks’ helmet, which he borrowed.

“I got some dings to the head,” Jordan admitted later.

Brooks attributes much of his success to Nadler, who makes his armor. “He’s one of the best in the country, right here in Nashua,” Brooks said.

Nadler said he started by making chain mail at age 14. When he got a welder at age 15, it was only a matter of time before he was designing and building gauntlets – the armed gloves that have to combine flexibility and armor plating in a marvel of mechanics – helmets, breastplates and more.

This isn’t cheap: Brooks estimated he has $10,000 worth of armor, perhaps more. Even the most basic set will cost $2,000 by the time it passes safety inspections.

“The biggest barrier is getting the armor. It’s not cheap; it’s not easy to get, to get it right,” Brooks said. This is the main reason why participation in SCA fighting outnumbers armored combat hundreds to one.

Brooks started Knights Hall in early 2012 because of his own interest in the sport and to give others a way to get into it. He hosts armored fighting Tuesday nights, SCA rattan fighting Wednesdays, and a general class for beginners and other interested folks Thursday nights.

The 1,200-square-foot Knights Hall runs on a monthly membership fee, with about 15 regulars who train with Brooks. As the founder and owner, Brooks would like to make it into more of a business, covering costs like rental, heat and repairing drywall when 210-pound men decked in hardened spring steel get slammed into it.

Ideally, he’d like to expand the space, maybe start classes for teens or kids, riding the interest in extreme sports and one-on-one combat, plus the interest in historical re-enactment. ​“We have room for folks who don’t want to be competitive. You can come into this from making armor, like Craig, or from interest in history – I was a history nerd in school. Even sewing, for making the costumes,” he said.And, of course, the combat.

​“Some guys just want to get together and bash,” Brooks added. “Nothing wrong with that.”

David Brooks can be reached at dbrooks@nashua telegraph.com. Follow Brooks on Twitter (@GraniteGeek).

So we’ve had two Knight Fights and I’ve fought in both of them. It doesn’t make me an expert, but I think I get some weight from it. So here’s one fighter's thoughts on if you want to fight in them or host them and also where I think the new brand of fighting should go. This will be a small series of blogs over the coming weeks. I’ll likely revisit them again in 6 months to a year to speak on what we’ve learned.

The ACL has currently offers multiple variety of Melees and now is starting to over multiple variety of singles competition as well; Duels and Knight Fights. The dueling options are well documented and slowly seem to be catching on, but still a mostly under-represented aspect of the sport, especially outside of the Sword and Shield category. However, in contrast the newly introduced, (and still in a Beta testing format), Knight Fights are growing fast and have become an event in and of themselves. It’s encouraging to see this growth in our sport working here and initial feedback is saying just that. It’s exciting, digestible, and best of all, starting to look pretty.

Knight Fights, for those who haven’t been following our developments, are a domination style fight, judged similar to boxing. They currently last up to 5 rounds, a minute apiece, but that may be changing. They can end in 3 rounds if one fighter has won three straight with dominance or there is a ref stoppage for injury or equipment failure. Fighters fight in matched weight classes and must agree to weapons before the bout starts and get blessing on weapon choice from the commissioner, (Cat Brooks) and event organizer. The rule system is still being worked on, but I can give you some insights into the goals we’re trying to achieve and our thoughts on how to get there.

We’re trying to make fights that are exciting, dynamic, weapon focused, and easy for the casual observer to comprehend. So what does that mean and how are we gonna do it? For exciting, we want fights that have lots of action and the ability for fights to change on a dime. In addition we want our strikes to look like they are having an effect. Most of that is achieved in training. We want fighters who have the endurance to go all 5 rounds at a high pace, can throw strikes with the power to hurt and debilitate, and have to skill to consistently land good shots or throws. I’ll talk more about the training we’re developing in weeks to come, but for now follow us on our (Knights Hall Facebook) page and Subscribe to our, (The Knights Hall YouTube) channel, to keep up with our program.

Outside of training, we try to achieve all the others goals with our rule set. We want to keep our fights dynamic by which I mean there is a variety of attacks, kicks, punches, edge strikes, pommel strikes, and throws. We don’t want two guys standing at maximum range and playing sword tag nor do we want people hugging for 5 minutes. We want people to mix it up. We keep sword tag from happening by giving points to dominance and aggression. If a guy is beating you with a sword, you can charge in and wreck him with some punches or a low kick trip. We prevent hugging matches by limiting grappling to 3 seconds.

You might think this will make weapons an after thought. We were worried about that, especially in an arming sword or short mace match. With Falchions, Polearms, and even Longswords, it’s fairly easy to for a good fighter to do enough damage to actually reduce his opponents capacity. But for the lighter quicker weapons, it’s much harder, especially if a person just rushes and tries to clinch and dirty box. So we make sure our judges know this is a weapons fight. We prioritize weapons strikes while judging. If 2 opponents land equal number of strikes, but one punches and the other used the weapon, the weapon striker will win. The strikes aren’t everything though. Land more weapon blows, but everyone can see you got your ass kicked... you still lose. Currently we are doing this as subjective judging with the guideline to treat every weapon strike as if it’s 2 non weapon strikes.

The last aspect we’re trying to highlight is ease of access. One of the problems we’ve had traditionally is it’s not easy for someone to get into watching our sport. Melee rules are pretty simple, last man standing, and yet I’ve heard lots of people talk about being confused watching it or unable to tell what was happening. Our Duels are equally simple, most strikes win, but an uneducated viewer can’t tell what a good strike is nor will they really understand why the guy who got punched a lot and thrown to the ground repeatedly, ended up winning. Add to that the lack of visceral reaction from the strikes and it can become boring if a person doesn’t appreciate sword/poles - manship. Knight Fights fixes this by all the things I’ve gone over above.

So...I hadn’t meant this to be just an outline of what a Knight Fight is, but it seemed important to cover that first and now that I’m done it seems like tackling another subject would make this too long. I plan on talking about being a fighter next, the type of training it takes, how to plan a fight, picking a cornerman, and what it’s like during the fight. After that I’ll give my advice on how to run a Knight Fight event or how to add one to the Melee or Singles event you already have planned. So keep watching this space and I’ll see you soon.

My Introduction:My name is Matt and I am a student of The Knights Hall and a member of the Armored Combat League of steel fighters. I am a new player, but I have never been a part of something as awesome and fulfilling as the sport of armored combat. There are so many things to talk about; training, work­life balance, the importance of having a support network, time management, the fighting itself, etc. that it truly will take a lifetime to describe, but for now.....on to who I am and why I do this sport.

I found out about the sport through my trainer and friend Jaye Travis Brooks Sr. back when he first established the Knights Hall, (year 2010), as a place for the members of the Society for Creative Anachronism to train in armored combat with rattan weapons. While I was a member of the SCA, (as it is called), and have friends in that organization, I was not terribly involved at that time. But after I started coming around to the Knights Hall, did a few events and fought a few times, Jaye started talking about a new sport.....a sport that was rougher, harder, more violent than the SCA.... It was a full contact sport with real steel weapons that enabled you to hit your opponents as hard as you could and allowed you to compete internationally in castles across the world, particularly in Europe.....

WELL.. let me tell you something.....for a physically weaker, nerdy type of guy who has loved Dungeons & Dragons and knightly related stuff since a young boy, this was a dream come true. But Jaye shook me of some of that from the get-go. He made sure I understood that this was not reenactment... This was not fantasy... And this was definitely NOT LARPING! This was a physically demanding sport that involved no pretending to be anything other than what we are: Men and women with a love of fighting and a desire to train, fight, and live the way of armored combat. Well for me, that not only did not dissuade me, it encouraged me to explore it further.

However, life, as it frequently tends to do, conspired to stop me at that moment in time from taking advantage of the opportunity presented to me and so I put it aside and would not take up that torch again for another year and a half to two years. Then, just as I was about to take it up again, life again took precedence over armored combat as my wife told me that she was pregnant. Well let me tell you nothing quite halts my desire to spend money on non-emergency things quite like knowing I have a life long obligation on the way and not having any clue as to how to budget my money efficiently enough to provide for another human life. One year and one VERY adorable baby girl later, I was ready, with the support of my wife and family, to begin the arduous journey of becoming a modern day knight.

The physical training is hard. The mental consistency and conditioning you need to cultivate is even harder.....but 5 months later, here I am and I am now preparing to take the field alongside my brothers-in-arms to compete for the privilege and high honor of wearing my nation's colors in battle for The World Championships 2016... And believe me, it is a scary, humbling, and an exciting feeling all rolled into one knowing that I will be competing on the national stage with relatively low experience compared to some of the people there, who will have years or more on me in both skill and conditioning. But, as in medieval times, one thing remains true to this day.....knights do not shrink from a challenge.

To wrap up this introduction, I will tell all you readers as we go forward and we take this journey together through a myriad of topics one thing above all... This is not just a sport. This is a passion, a way of life, a burning desire to hammer and forge the person that we once all were into a harder and better version of ourselves... This sport brings out the best in men and women, and for myself... It gives me strength to endure other aspects of my life. Walk with me onto the battlefield, and hear my words.

​Rookie Advice: Helmet HorrorsI'm not sure if I stole it, or if I actually coined the phrase, but with an influx of new guys to the Knights Hall ACL program, I've been saying it a lot; “You got Helmet Horrors, dude. Don't sweat it.” Most fighters in armor have had this feeling before. You're exhausted, trying to suck oxygen through the tiny holes in a steel face mask. You're sweating, maybe beat up, maybe laying on the ground with some gigantic bastard crushing your torso. Maybe you're stepping off the field, gasping and drained, and you can't get your helmet off over your ears. Your fingers feel numb and you can't work the clasp on your visor. You can't breathe. You're gulping down your own exhaled carbon dioxide, and your lungs are screaming. You panic in the helmet.

It's natural, and I've seen very few guys start on the journey to be an armored combat fighter who didn't have at least one moment like that. I remember I had it at Fort Tryon 2014, my first big ACL event. I walked into the arming tent, and got completely out of my armor, and just laid on the ground until the panic subsided. I don't even remember how I did it really, a visby coat of plates is a son of a bitch to get off all on your own. The second time I got it was in Poland during the World Championships, where I ended up face­down at the bottom of a dogpile. I couldn't see, I couldn't move, and every time I took a breath I tasted foreign soil. I had to close my eyes, make myself take deep, calming breaths, and remind myself that I wasn't buried alive, and these guys on top of me would be getting up real soon.

I've heard the panic and seen the panic in other fighters. Guys spinning wildly around after a hard fight, heaving and wheezing, screaming for someone without gauntlets on to pull their helm off or unbuckle the visor. That deep breath of relief once the helmet is off. Rookies, let me tell you, it does get easier. As your fitness level comes up, and your adrenaline during a fight levels out, and your comfort in the helm increases, the horrors fade away. You can actively train it out of your system by doing a HIIT workout in your helmet. Practice slowly, calmly drawing deep breaths in and pushing deep breaths out, (even as every mental alarm bell rings for you to get that goddamn steel trap off your face!)

Eventually, you'll feel like me and a lot of other fighters feel; your helmet is a safety blanket and not a cage. I might have nerves before a match, but as soon as that helmet goes on I get a wash of calm, because I know I can trust my gear to keep myself alive and relatively unmangled.

Don't ever let the fear of Helmet Horrors prevent you from putting on your lid and picking up your weapon. It's a hurdle to be leapt. For some guys, it's a big hurdle. For others, it might be a handful of times and then it's out of their system. For some guys, they never get that sharp stab of panic. Good for them, but that doesn't mean they're special, or a better fighter. Train hard, get mean, and start referring to your helmet as “your real face.” Helmet Horrors are temporary, and victory on the battlefield is eternal.